We recently published a 32-page guide for bloggers that covers everything you’d ever want to know about promoting your blog with MailChimp. It’s jam-packed with step-by-step tutorials, helpful tips and other useful information. So, why should bloggers be concerned about email?
For one thing, people have different preferences about how they consume information. Some people want to come to your site and browse your latest posts; some are interested in what others are saying in the comments; and some just want to skim your content via RSS and never visit your site at all. There’s another group of people that prefer reading your blog in their email clients. It’s true! They may not have many sites they care enough about to warrant managing a feed reader, or they just like getting email instead of visiting your blog. Whatever the reason, it’s a nice option to offer your readers so they can engage with you in the way that suits them best.
Also, aside from promoting your regular blog content, there may be other ways you can use email to engage your audience and track the effectiveness of your communications. You could send exclusive content to your mailing list, like special articles or sales. You could inform them about updates and news that may be outside the scope of your typical blog postings. The bottom line is this: When people sign up to receive updates from you, they’re telling you they want to hear from you. They’re saying, “I’m interested in what you have to say. Please keep me informed.”
You may not know how engaged your average reader is. You don’t know who’s reading your RSS feed, or how devoutly they’re reading it. But you know that people who give you their email addresses are indicating a certain level of commitment in asking to receive updates from you. And with a service like MailChimp, you know who those people are, and you can actually track their engagement by how often they open your emails, what they click on and what they share with their friends.
Sounds pretty good, right? Here’s an outline of all the topics included in the bloggers guide:
Building Your Mailing List
Sign-Up Form Plugins
Setting Up an RSS-to-Email Campaign
Using Feedburner with MailChimp
Merge Tags for Bloggers
Templates
Frequency (Interest Groups)
Social Sharing
Reports
Analytics360 for WordPress
Blog Publishing Tools
ChimpFeedr
Yahoo! Pipes
Mobile Campaigns
DOWNLOAD MailChimp’s Guide for Bloggers (PDF, 16MB)
Interested in seeing these tools in action? Sign up for one of our bloggers webinars:
November 11, 2009 at 11AM EST
December 2, 2009 at 11AM EST
December 16, 2009 at 4PM EST
Free HTML Templates →
Compare Us →
View Pricing Plans →
Sign Up Free →
9 Comments